


I've Been Missing You Since We Were Eighteen.

by tiredperalta



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Also Andy and Chelsea were childhood friends irl i love them too, Amy is the best girlfriend honestly, I love them both, Jake and Gina were childhood friends, Jake is just back from prison, Other, Recovery, Tiny bit of Angst, mentions of recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 07:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14827880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredperalta/pseuds/tiredperalta
Summary: Gina hasn’t seen Jake in eight weeks, he’s just got out of jail and narrowly survived death so she knows she should say something meaningful, tell him she loves him or something.Instead, she says: “Shave your fucking beard, man.”(Or Jake's home and Gina has been breaking into his apartments since they were 18 years old and that's not about to change now.)





	I've Been Missing You Since We Were Eighteen.

Over the course of their friendship, Gina Linetti has stolen exactly seven keys from Jake Peralta.

  
The first was his middle school locker, the second from his high school one. The third and fourth were to his childhood home’s front door and bedroom window. The fifth to his college dorm room, the sixth to his Brooklyn apartment.

The seventh is actually to Amy’s apartment. Well, his and Amy’s. The apartment Jake and Amy share.

Jake’s never really shared anything with anyone before. Gina thinks back to being seven and Jake hoarding candies; being ten and Jake locking his toys in a chest at the end of his bed; being sixteen and Jake making her buy her own weed.

 

Except he’s a cop now so he won’t buy drugs and he still won’t share his candy so really what’s the point in even being friends with him anymore.

 

But Jake’s home. He’s home and alive and Amy has been constantly updating her on Jake’s every move via text since he arrived home two days ago and Gina is oddly grateful.

_(She doesn’t tell Amy this obviously.)_

Gina withholds from breaking and entering for exactly 48 hours before kissing both Milton and Iggy goodbye and making her way to Jake’s apartment. She quietly unlocks his – _their –_ front door at 6pm, exactly 48 hours and twenty-eight minutes after he’d been released from prison.

She slinks quietly through their hallway and finds Jake in the kitchen. He’s leaning over their counter, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, absent-mindedly swiping through an endless stream of photos on Amy’s phone.

Amy must have compiled everything he’s missed into a folder because she watches him as he scrolls through pictures of Nikolaj and Iggy and Cagney and Lacey and Ava, through seemingly endless pictures of perps and cases from the precinct and pictures from his mom.

And he’s smiling slightly. Which is great because not only does it mean that her sort-of-big-brother is no longer wrongfully trapped behind bars, but he’s apparently feeling normal enough to be humming a Taylor Swift song under his breath.

And she’s kinda missed him. Like a lot.

The first thing she notices is that he looks tired. Like more tired than ‘ _Studying-For-Academy-Exams-At-3am’_   Jake and way more than ‘ _Still-Moping-Over-A-Major-Breakup’_   Jake. He’s got dark bags hiding under his eyes, his hair is curling over his forehead - it’s far too long to look even vaguely presentable.

_(The second thing she notices is he’s not wearing a shirt and there’s a harsh scar forming down his right arm and there’s a trail of bruises littered down his back. And Jesus Christ he’s got thin.)_

Gina has just had a baby that Jake – her oldest friend – hasn’t met, she hasn’t seen him in eight weeks, he’s just got out of jail and narrowly survived death so she knows she should say something meaningful, tell him she loves him or something.

Instead, she says: _“Shave your fucking beard, man.”_

_(Usually, she enjoys seeing him visibly jump whenever she breaks into his apartment but this time she watches as the blood runs from his cheeks and his hands automatically fold into fists to protect his face and, for a second, she thinks she’s gonna throw up.)_

He relaxes when he recognises her, his hands fall to his sides as he instantly pulls her into a tight hug and he sighs an old nickname into her hair.

_“Hey, Goose.”_

_“Hey, Jakey.”_

_“Missed you.”_

_“Shut up.”_

They both pull away at the same time and she’s struck by the sudden loss of the scent of Amy’ vanilla shampoo he uses, the trace of Lynx deodorant and the brand of candies he’s loved since they were six years old because they turned their tongues blue.

_(She pretends not to notice how Jake is shaking as he runs his hands through his hair.)_

Gina suddenly realises the silence around them is deafening.

_“So, where’s Amy?”_

_“We’ve slept for like, two whole days. She’s gone to the shops.”_

_“Is she buying shaving cream?”_

_“She likes the beard,”_ he smiles softly. Gina rolls her eyes.

_“It makes you look old.”_

_“I am old, Goose, I’m thirty-six.”_

_“God, then just retire already.”_

He laughs and the smile stays on his face for a few seconds longer than it usually would. Gina softens.

 _“Nice to be home?”_ she asks quietly.

_“Nice doesn’t cover it, man. It’s just nice to be in a room that’s wider than four metres. You want a drink?”_

_“Yeah, can I have—”_

_“Cherry Coke?”_

_“Hell yeah.”_

The room goes quiet as he pours her a drink and the silence engulfs them again.

Jake hands her the glass before reaching over the counter to pick up his old NYPD shirt off the chair. He pulls it over his head.

His shirt is half covering his eyes when Gina suddenly asks: _“Can I come over with Iggy tomorrow? You still haven’t met her.”_

And, just like that, Jake’s smile is back with vengeance – like someone hadn’t just tried to extinguish it for months in prison.

_“Yes, God, please come over, we’ll make you guys lunch. Wait can Iggy eat yet?”_

_"No Jake, she’s four weeks old. You’ve got so much to learn if you’re gonna put a baby in Amy.”_

_“Okay one: ew, you sound like Charles. And two: I mean, I will, because you know,”_ he looks around vaguely, _“I’ll have the chance to do that now. Eventually, I mean.”_

Gina nods, thinks of Iggy and thinks of Jake at ten years old, telling her that his kids will be secret agents or maybe own ice-cream vans or possibly both. She thinks of Jake babysitting Cagney and Lacey and buying toys for Nikolaj. She thinks of Jake sitting with scared kids in the precinct when they’ve witnessed a crime or they’ve lost their parents, how he offers them a bag of candy and lets them play games on his phone. She thinks of Jake often and she always thinks of a future Jake having kids with his curly hair and his sense of humour.

 _“Will I get a say in who puts babies in who?”_ Amy’s laugh echoes into the room as she walks through the kitchen door.

Jake looks up as she enters, eyes softening as he hands her phone back in return for the three plastic bags she is clutching.

He gently places the bags on their counter, wraps his arms around her as she pulls out a bottle of orange soda - eliciting a joyful squeal from Jake - and a bottle of red wine which she hands to Gina. 

Gina raises an eyebrow.

 _“Jake said it would only be a matter of time until you broke in here,”_ Amy grins, _“here, for you and Milton. This is the one you like, right?”_

Gina smiles, nods.

Jake lets go of Amy and kisses Gina lightly on the forehead.

_"I'm gonna go shower. Stay until I get back, Goose?"_

_"Course, nerd."_

He's half way out the door when his phone pings loudly from his pocket. He pulls it out, reads it, looks at Amy and then back down at the phone.

_"Nah, I'm good Ames, honest."_

He shoots her a quick thumbs up.

Gina and Amy watch him leave.

" _Amy, did you just text him across the room?"_

 _"Huh? Oh, yeah,"_ Amy mutters as she continues pulling food out of the grocery bags.

_"Why?"_

_"Just checking he was alright to go on his own, that's all."_

Gina scoffs slightly and then notices Amy's worried face and the way she's biting her lip so much that it's threatening to bleed.

 _"He'll clench his fists when he's not feeling good,"_ Gina says quickly.

" _What?"_

_"Amy Santiago, you're a detective and you haven't noticed it?"_

Amy turns to look at her before shaking her head meekly.

_"Okay, well, now you know. He clenches his fists when his brain isn't good and he'll dig his nails into his palms. It's weird. He's done it since we were like, seven."_

_"When his dad...?"_

_"Yeah. I only noticed it when we were freshmen in highschool or whenever. They had him on some kind of watchlist for self-destructive behavior or something."_

_"He told me about that."_

The sound of the shower running echoes quietly in the background.

Gina sips her coke.

Amy sighs.

_(Time passes, the shower runs in the distance.)_

" _How do you calm him down?"_ Amy asks.

_"Well, what do you usually do when he's not doing good?"_

_"Um, usually I just talk to him, stroke his hair, tell him he's alright, I don't know. Put something familiar on like Die Hard or-"_

_"Taylor Swift?"_

_"Always."_

The two women grin at each other.

" _She also makes sure I eat, she buys orange soda by the gallon and she reads books in the bathroom while I have a bath so I'm not on my own, it's super cute,"_ Jake grins as he returns, half dressed in shorts and an old academy hoodie.

Amy blushes.

 _"Sorry, didn't mean to talk about you, Jake,"_ she says.

 _"Oh, I definitely meant to,"_ Gina smiles.

Jake rolls his eyes, pauses as if he's struck by the familiarity of it all.

_"Stay for dinner, Goose. We can cook for Milton too right, babe?"_

Amy scoffs. 

_"Yeah you can cook for other people, I'm not risking poisoning them."_

Gina smiles, nods.

* * *

Over the course of their friendship, Gina has learnt many things about Jake Peralta.

 

She knows he has three sugars and three creams in his coffee.

_(She grimaces every time she orders one for him in their local Starbucks.)_

She knows he broke his arm at thirteen because she bet he couldn’t climb on his garage roof.

_(She still feels guilty over that.)_

She knows she is still his emergency contact since they first got matching phones as teenagers.

_(She got pushed to second after Amy came into his life but she’s oddly not at all upset by that.)_

 

And, as she eats matzo ball soup from Jake's grandmothers' recipe, her legs intertwined with Milton's on the sofa as Amy stands in the doorway, smiling as Jake holds Iggy as he promises her he'll be the best uncle in the whole world, Gina learns something new:

Jake Peralta is going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> thank u for reading!!
> 
> honestly, i love jake and gina and andy and chelsea and 100% jake and gina got high together as teenagers because andy and chelsea did irl. Also when jake called gina 'goose' in the show i died i love that nickname.
> 
> leave me a comment!


End file.
